


In the Dream of Home

by Lizardbeth



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Community: sg_rarepairings, Episode: s03e04 Sateda, F/M, First Kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-12
Updated: 2015-05-12
Packaged: 2018-03-30 06:55:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3927124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lizardbeth/pseuds/Lizardbeth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ronon's dreams have changed, and so has his home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the Dream of Home

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for the Stargate Rarepairing Ficathon 2006. Part of a group of fics I somehow missed archiving. oops. :)

* * *

 

_Sateda. Again._   
_  
_ _Running. Again._   
_  
_ _The attack. Taunting the Wraith. Fighting._   
_  
_ _All tangled together, years and yesterday, one into another. He tries to pull free, but a different tendril takes hold of him and he's trapped again._   
_  
_ _The hospital. Holding out his hand to Melena. The words fall from his lips in well-worn paths, unstoppable and ultimately futile:_   
_  
_ _"Come on, there's still a chance. I can get us out of here..."_   
_  
_ _Melena's face is nothing but determination. Bravery. Death. "What about all these people?"_   
_  
_ _He glances away to the injured in their beds, and he knows none of them will live another hour. Not another minute._   
_  
_ _He opens his mouth to tell Melena there's no hope, that she has to go, and he turns his head back to look at her._   
_  
_ _Elizabeth Weir is standing in front of the window, which is about to explode._   
_  
_ _"NO!"_

  
Ronon was on his feet before he realized he was awake. Doctor Beckett protested somewhere behind him but Ronon pretended he didn't hear and hurried for the door.  
  
His heart was pounding and he needed to  **move** , leg be damned. Over and over he'd relived Melena's final moments in his nightmares during the years he had run. They had always been exactly the same.  
  
But now it had changed.  
  
The corridors of Atlantis felt like the hive ship, dark and confining. Instinctively he avoided people, turning down other halls when he heard approaching footsteps. He neared his quarters, almost by accident, but turned away and continued onward. His whole body ached and his leg stabbed with each step but the pain was a welcome distraction from the nightmare and everything it might mean.  
  
"Ronon?" Sheppard's voice was a surprise, coming from down the cross-corridor. "Did Beckett let you go so early?"  
  
"I'm fine," Ronon answered shortly, not stopping.  
  
Sheppard trotted behind him. "You want me to come with you?"  
  
The earnest friendliness in Sheppard's voice grated on Ronon's ears, and he gritted his teeth so he wouldn't say anything he'd regret. "No."  
  
He sped his pace, and Sheppard took the hint and let him get away. "Okay, just don't do anything stupid," he called after.  
  
Ronon had no doubt that Sheppard would continue to track him from the control center. Once that would've made him angry, and there was still a reflexive irritation that these people wouldn't leave him be, but he knew they meant well.  
  
These strange Tau'ri had taken him in and given him refuge. Sheppard. Beckett. Even McKay had done their best to protect him and make him one of their own. He owed them.  
  
And Elizabeth Weir. She'd allowed them to do it, even when she had been uncertain and thought he was a risk and a danger. He owed her too.  
  
His steps paused. Elizabeth. He called her that, in his own mind, and it felt daring.  
  
She was beautiful, especially when she didn't think anyone was watching her. At rest or in deep thought, her eyes took on a sheen and her lips parted slightly, and his fingers ached to slide along the silky, slim lines of her neck and cheeks.  
  
He shook his head sharply, chasing the image away. She was the leader of the city, and he was just a soldier under her command.  
  
Melena deserved better. He refused to forget her. But he found when he tried to picture her, the image kept sliding into Elizabeth, and a vague memory of her standing above him in the infirmary, looking very worried. He hoped it wasn't only a dream that she had rested her hand on his. Then he realized it was a foolish hope.  
  
When he wasn't tired and sore, these thoughts of her would go away. They had to go away.  
  
His feet found an outside balcony, where he finally stopped.  
  
The sun was high and bright in a clear sky, warm on his skin. The sound of the waves hitting Atlantis was faint up here, and the city itself was silent, except for one lonely bird who had found his way to this distant island.  
  
He leaned against the railing, closing his eyes and letting the salt air clear the stench of the Wraith and the dust of Sateda from his nose.  
  
He'd stood again where Melena had died, right where his last hope had turned to ashes. He had wondered if the reason the Wraith couldn't feed on him was because he'd already had the life sucked out of him on Sateda. When he'd found himself there again, he'd believed that revenge was all he had still.  
  
But there was more. And he had no idea how he was going to deal with that. He hadn't been a part of anything since Kell had betrayed him to a life of being a Wraith toy.  
  
The whisper-soft sound of the balcony door sliding open made him tense, but he recognized Elizabeth's soft tread and didn't turn around. She came only a few steps inside. "Ronon? I wanted -- I wanted to make sure you're all right."  
  
He wanted to say he was fine, so she'd go away, but the words didn't come.  
  
She licked her lips and added, "I'm sorry. If you want to be alone --"  
  
"No," he answered, surprising himself.  
  
She hesitated before joining him at the balcony. He glimpsed her profile out of the corner of his eye as she looked out to sea. "Carson said you had a dream. About Sateda?" she asked quietly.  
  
He nodded, not trusting his voice, afraid if he began speaking, he wouldn't stop.  
  
"I can't imagine how horrible that must have been, to go back like that," she murmured. "I'm so sorry."  
  
"It helped," he said.  
  
She turned to him, frowning in confusion. "It helped? How?"  
  
He couldn't meet her eyes, fixing his gaze beyond her to the water. "You came. That didn't happen before."  
  
She made an odd sound, and he had to look. She was biting her lip and blinking as though she might cry. "Ronon," she put a hand on his forearm and squeezed. "We would never leave you with the Wraith. I promise."  
  
He stilled under the touch of her hand, and his breath caught at how intensely green her eyes were in the light.  
  
Her fingers moved, stroking across one of the muscles, light as the wind on his skin. And then she realized what she'd done and flushed, pale skin turning pink at her throat and in her cheeks. The thought struck him that she probably climaxed the same way, blushing across her chest and up into her face. He wanted to see it; wanted to give it to her with a sudden aching desperation.  
  
She dropped her gaze to her hand and hastily lifted it away from his arm. But she had revealed herself already, and he knew. He wasn't the only one.  
  
He could see the intent to set things back as they had been growing in her face. But he didn't want her to speak the words and he didn't want to pretend he hadn't seen.  
  
"Elizabeth," he murmured, and her name felt exactly as perfect in his mouth as he had thought.  
  
Her head snapped up in surprise. Their eyes met again and her lips parted slightly, and he knew he was right. He leaned down, slowly, giving her a chance to stop him.  
  
But all she did was murmur his name and it was not in protest. Her lips were suddenly touching his, as she rose up on her toes.  
  
Their tentative touch changed to more intent, tasting each other. Her hands slid up his arms to grab his shoulders and pull him into her. He had one hand on her tiny waist and the other was deep into the softness of her hair.  
  
She made some noise in her throat and pressed her breasts into him, kissing him back as fully and deeply as he had ever imagined.  
  
Lost in her, the pure clean scent of her, the taste of her mouth, and the feel of her hands caressing his shoulders and circling his back, nothing else existed.  
  
Until reality intruded, as a sharp, blazing needle of pain slid through him from his knee and up his spine, and he gasped, pulling back. But once he wasn't holding onto her, his leg refused to support him and buckled.  
  
"Ronon!" she exclaimed in alarm, darting forward to grab him.  
  
He caught himself on the railing and held onto it tightly with one hand. "Sorry," he offered her, embarrassed. "Leg had other plans."  
  
She smiled, lips curving ruefully. "I forgot you were hurt. I'm the one who's sorry."  
  
"Not so sorry we don't do it again?" he asked, hopefully without too much eagerness.  
  
Her smile widened, and she tucked some of her hair behind her ear in an absent gesture to push it from her face. "Not that sorry, no," she agreed.  
  
"Good."  
  
She moved close against him, body to body, so he could feel her everywhere. She lowered her voice to a purr, "And when you're not about to fall over with pain and exhaustion, I'll show you."  
  
"Tomorrow?" he asked.  
  
She laughed. "When Carson says you're up to strenuous physical activity," she insisted, with a wicked glint in her eyes.  
  
"I'd like that." He caught her around the waist with his free hand to keep her there, and inhaled the scent of her flowery shampoo in her hair. "Are you sure?" he asked softly. He knew that anything between them would complicate her life far more than it would complicate his.  
  
She didn't answer right away, staying nestled against his chest. Then she murmured, "When you were missing, I promised myself that if we found you I wasn't going to waste my second chance. I don't know where we'll end up --"  
  
He shook his head a little, quieting her. "No one ever does." He thought of Melena and the life they'd both been so sure they were going to have.  
  
"True. But I do know I don't want to regret not trying," she said. They stayed for another moment, until he winced and had to shift all his weight off his injured leg.  
  
She changed position, sliding under his arm and holding his hand over her shoulder with one hand, and the other around his back. "Let's get you back to Carson, before he sends out the dogs."  
  
He didn't have to ask if she was strong enough to help him, because he already knew she was. So he limped along, leaning on her, and he found himself smiling because he was pretty sure that Elizabeth was going to sneak in another kiss along the way.  
  
After that, he planned to pass out in the infirmary, with all his friends guarding his sleep.  
  
His new family.  
  
 _fin._


End file.
